Eros and ecstasy : on the enactment of sacrifice in Vladimir Bartol's novel Alamut

Petzer, Tatjana (author)

The novel fuses histoire (the narration of the emergence of the Shi'ite-Islamic faction of the Nezâris, the "Assassins") and textualized performance (the description of various aspects of the narrative's mise-en-scène) in an attempt to re-present the order's teachings, practice and occult knowledge. In the enclosed area of the mountain fortress Alamut, the intellectual head and master, Hasan-i Sabbah, is God-like, modeling a state within the state according to his grand plan that also includes a paradise as pictured by the Koran - the latter being a stage for experiments on the human psyche. Regaining illusionary power by means of a (ritual) drug, this theater turns into a rite of passage for the Fedayin ("self-sacrificing ones"). Based on strategies of disguise, that is simulation and dissimulation, the theater's procédé questions the relation between power and ethics as well as the legitimization of totality and the absolute.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Slovene literature, Slovene novel, historical novel, Assassins, "theatre of drug", eroticism, sacrifice, artificial paradise, psyhological experiment, manipulation, V. Bartol, Alamut
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2003
• Number of pages: Str. 529-538
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-165085
• UDC: 821.163.6.09-311.6
• COBISS.SI-ID: 71960930
• Publication date in RUL: 22.11.2024

Record is a part of a monograph

• Title: Slovenski roman
• Editors: Miran Hladnik, Gregor Kocijan
• Place of publishing: Ljubljana
• Publisher: Center za slovenščino kot drugi/tuji jezik pri Oddelku za slovenistiko Filozofske fakultete
• Year: 2003
• ISBN: 961-237-058-3
• COBISS.SI-ID: 125833472
• Collection title: Obdobja
• Collection numbering: 21
• Collection ISSN: 1408-211X

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Roman prepleta zgodbo (pripoved o nastanku šiitske islamske ločine izmailcev - asasinov) z ubesediljeno predstavo (opis pripovednega prizorišča/scene), in sicer z namenom predstavitve naukov, običajev in okultnih veščin sekte. V mejah gorske trdnjave Alamut duhovni vodja in gospodar Hasan Ibn Saba, ki je kot bog, oblikuje državo v državi po svojem velikem načrtu, ki vključuje tudi raj, kot je naslikan v Koranu, ta pa je prizorišče poskusov na človeški psihi. Po ponovni pridobitvi navidezne moči z (ritualno) drogo se to gledališče spremeni v obred za fedaije (tiste, ki se žrtvujejo). S strategijo preobleke in pretvarjanja, ki je simulacija in de-simulacija, gledališčni postopek zastavlja pomisleke o razmerju med močjo in moralo, pa tudi o upravičevanju totalnosti in absolutnega.

• Keywords: slovenska književnost, slovenski roman, zgodovinski roman, asasini, gledališče droge, erotika, žrtvovanje, umetni raj, psihološki eksperiment, manipulacija, literarne študije, V. Bartol, Alamut